We ran around 3km to plant, weed, dig, move........you name it we did it tonight!

Another beautiful evening for a run and tonight we had two local tasks. So after a quick warm-up we split up into two groups and headed off to our tasks. Ellie led the first group to Park Hill School where, for the first time, they completed the task in daylight and without being soaked. Ellie is going to send me some details about what they got up to which I’ll add to the report ASAP. My group included new runners Nirvana and Olecia and Sally and we headed to Park Hill Rec to plant our bed in the Peace Garden. Thanks go to Josi and Catherine ** for spending their time buying us red and white flowers and thanks too to **Ideverde for donating some lovely red snap dragons. Before we planted the red and white flowers in the GoodGym logo we had to move a few plants and pull out some sneaky weeds that had appeared since our last visit. We are really looking forward to seeing our logo bloom over the summer.

And here is Ellie's report for her school garden task.

"Team two headed up to Park Hill School where there were lots of tasks waiting for us! First job on the list was sorting out the pond, which was covered with a very thick layer of pond cress - this was painstakingly scooped up with a net and put carefully to one side (just in case there were any little creatures snuggled in there!). We even caught a newt! Another group set to work on a huge stretch of nettles that reached almost to head height! They hacked and chopped away until the ground was clear - very hard work in such hot and humid weather! Meanwhile another little group cleared a flowerbed of weeds ready for the children to plant with some bedding plants later in the week. Two huge piles of weeds later and it was ready to go! Alongside, Andy build a small fence to create a new raised bed on a slope and then carted lots of compost up the hill to fill this up ready for some pumpkin plants to be planted very soon. Great work everyone!"

Ellie led the fitness session tonight while a few of us stayed in the garden to water the newly planted flowers. She had the runners jump and skip along a ladder, run in circles and perform a series of exercise which probably gave the other park users something to watch and marvel at. All in all a great evening.

Don’t forget the Festival of Peace – the finale of this week long event is on Saturday 23rd of June in Park Hill Rec at 11.30am and there will be a yogathon so it’d be great to have as many of us as possible in our t-shirts doing some downwards dogs. Bring a towel or mat, friends and family and your yoga vibes too.

Finally…. Next week we are off to Addiscombe Road to haul out the ivy and also along to a local nursery to rid them off some sand. It’s also the last Tuesday of the month so we thought for a change we could head to the Oval Tavern as it’ll be close by and at the moment BoxPark is full of football noise!

A warm evening. 2 community projects in need of a hand. A group of 29 lovely runners.

These elements combined beautifully last night for GoodGym Croydon's second birthday.

The runners

It was great to see some new faces last night! Liz, Marcelo, Dre, Chris R, Heather, Catherine, and Chris T all joined us for the first time, and got to join in with the GoodGym Croydon magic! It was also great to see a few runners back who have been part of the group's journey in the past, like Helena, and one of our pals from Lewisham and Bromley, Conroy, join us for a spot of GoodGym tourism!

The task

One group, led by Ellie and Juliet, ran 2km in total to help at Park Hill; helping get the Peace Garden ready for the Festival of Peace they're holding in June. This involved tackling weeds, moving plants, and generally getting the space a lot more ready for the festival. Another group, led by Helena, Amatare, Conroy and myself, ran around 4km in total to help our pals at the Addiscombe Railway Park do some bits in their community garden. Amongst other things we tidied around some apple trees, planted some lavender on a bank, and dug a MASSIVE hole that will eventually be turned into a pond. Both task holders were really happy with what the groups had done, a testament to what a big group of energetic runners can get done in a short time.

The social

Once we got back to the start point we stretched out and most of us headed over to Matthews Yard for a cracking birthday social. It was a cracking time, and great hearing people's different experiences running with the GoodGym community so far. There was even a beautiful group rendition of Happy Birthday To Us (I can only apologise for starting that off!). Kudos to Juliet, who has made our group all the things we love (inclusive, stimulating and fun) from our first run two years ago! Its been two great years so far, and great to see so many willing to get stuck in with our third year.

Here are a few dates for diaries, for those I chatted with about upcoming events:

• Every GoodGym Croydon group run starts at the same time and place, details about the next run will always be here

• GoodGym Southwark will be doing pacing at Burgess parkrun on Saturday if you'd like to join in with that - I'm doing my first pacing ever for 30 minutes!

• The GoodGym Olympics will be happening on the 30th June. Not as intimidating as it sounds, it's a big fun sports day in North London with GoodGym joining from all over; last year Croydon got a gold (three legged race), but it'd be great to have even more of us up there this year!